Palestinian man comes under fire while driving north of Ramallah

July 15, 2017 10:05 P.M. (Updated: July 15, 2017 10:06 P.M.)

(Israeli army spokesperson)

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian man was lightly injured when unidentified assailants, believed to be Palestinian, opened fire at his Israeli-plated vehicle north of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank on Saturday morning, according to the Israeli army.

An Israeli army spokesperson wrote in a statement that Nasser Nael came under fire while driving between the illegal Israeli Ateret settlement and the village of Umm Safa, and sustained minor wounds from broken glass of his car window.

The statement attached a video of Nael describing how he “survived by a miracle after a Palestinian fired three gunshots at his car from a speeding car,” the army spokesperson wrote, adding that “terrorism does not differentiate between Arabs and Jews or between Israelis and Palestinians. Terrorism is blind and has one goal that is against humanity.”

In the video, Nael said he was originally from the Ramallah-area village of Beitin but currently resides in Brazil, and was driving to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv when the gunman opened fire from a vehicle driving toward him in the opposite direction.

"Thank God I wasn't harmed,” he said in the testimony, adding that while he could not make out the assailant's face, who Nael said was also the driver, he saw a "woman wearing a hijab (veil) sitting next to the driver."

"I feel they (the assailant) did not distinguish between Arabs and Jews," he said, speculating in video that he came under fire because of the Israeli-registered license plates on his car.

While Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have white license plates and are prohibited from travelling to Jerusalem or Israel, Israelis or Palestinians with Israeli IDs can register their cars inside Israel, and are issued yellow license plates.

As a result, yellow license plates seen in the West Bank are sometimes associated with Israelis who reside in Jewish-only settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory that were established in contravention of international law.